Walking into the exhibition hall on the second floor of Xuhui Art Museum, multimedia images turn an entire wall into a mural, and visitors instantly "travel" through the temples in the Shigatse region of Tibet hundreds of years ago. At the corners of the walls, the colors extracted from the frescoes flow into light waves, such as "red with green", which is considered a "traditional taboo" in word of mouth, which is an important color matching for these ancient murals.
Behind the "Brilliant Images Transform into SmallEster Landscapes : A Special Exhibition of Murals from the 13th to the 15th Centuries in the Shigatse Region of Tibet", the experiments cooperated by Xuhui Art Museum and the Digital Art Department of shanghai Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University are still ongoing: through the surge of big data, a group of new murals composed of traditional elements is gradually being "created" by artificial intelligence.
This is one of the experiments of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University in recent years to try to digitally transform traditional cultures such as "intangible cultural heritage skills". When the news that this year's Beijing Winter Olympics adopted the handicraft of the Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Project "Haipai Velvet Thread Weaving Technique" as the bouquet of awards caused a round of applause, the controversy of how to inherit and carry forward the intangible cultural heritage once again attracted attention.
One path that is universally accepted and recognized is to combine traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design, entering contemporary life through consumption. With the advent of the data age, some researchers and practitioners in Shanghai have tried to analyze traditional skills through artificial intelligence, allowing young people to experience the skills behind the finished product in a "zero threshold" way.
When traditional culture such as intangible cultural heritage, which was originally full of mystery and ritual, was cracked by big data analysis to crack the "genetic code" and copied mechanically, is the promotion, inheritance and development of traditional culture good or bad?
Let the numbers tell the story of intangible cultural heritage
At the end of 2019, Li Yega from Dazhuang Village, Donggou Township, Mutual Aid Turk Autonomous County, Qinghai Province, walked into the Information and Interaction Design Studio of shanghai academy of fine arts at Shanghai University. Here, teachers and students helped her adjust her head equipment and put an armband on her elbow.
The armband vibrates slightly and then returns to calm. The inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage "Turkish pan embroidery" is a little nervous, and she has never thought of participating in "a scientific and technological experiment" in Shanghai after dealing with needlework for most of her life; but she is full of curiosity and yearning, because Li Qiansheng, director of the Digital Art Department of shanghai academy of fine arts at Shanghai University, told her that this experiment can tell the story of Turkish embroidery to the world.
When the familiar needle and thread were held in his hand, Li Yega quickly returned to calm. Fingertip needles and threads flowed like water, and the sensing device recorded the subtle changes in her body. Next to the table is Zhang Wanjun, a graduate student at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai University who has never been exposed to embroidery before.
Intangible Cultural Heritage representatives and teachers and students participating in the experiment
The embroidery process of the day generates a chart. An EEG with a radiant ray indicates concentration in red and relaxation in blue; another EMG visually shows fluctuations in muscle strength with curves.
At the beginning of the experiment, a large area of Li Yega's EEG showed blue, but Zhang Wanjun's image was dominated by blue-red interweaving purple, surrounded by a circle of red. This means that Li Yega's embroidery process is quite relaxed, and Zhang Wanjun is nervous. Similar results are shown on the curve on the EMG: most of Li Yega's data is very average, while Zhang Wanjun's data sometimes stays around 100, and sometimes soars to more than 600.
In the second half of the experiment, the equipment began to record the data of Song Anqi, a graduate student of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, on the study of disc embroidery for 30 days. For beginners, embroidery is intense and boring. In the middle of the experiment, Song Anqi listened to music and even chased drama while embroidering. Unexpectedly, the attention shifted, and the blue color on the EEG increased. However, fearing that the results of influencing experimental variables are not rigorous, such "external stimuli" are prohibited. "But through the final results, the works in the few days of listening to music embroidery were particularly good, and they also coincided with the presentation of the data."
This experiment not only recorded the data of non-hereditary heirs and beginners in making the classic pattern of disc embroidery, but also collected data on the body that was difficult to quantify in the past. A few months later, the study, titled The Secret of Turkish Embroidery, was nominated for Best Data Storytelling at the IEEE PacificVis Visual Data Storytelling Contest. In the eyes of some people in the industry, such data stories are different from traditional stories that tell the labor experience of intangible cultural heritage practitioners or show the morals of products, "Data tells the technology itself in a visual way." "The biggest takeaway from this project is the understanding that 'intangible' intangible cultural heritage can be represented by 'tangible' data." Song Anqi said that behind the beauty of the technique there is also the beauty of data, which is a kind of "regular existence".
Letting data tell the story of intangible cultural heritage to the world, and telling the "skills" of Xuan and Xuan into "laws" that are easier for modern people to understand, is what Li Qiansheng and his colleagues and students have pursued in many experiments. At an experimental workshop event at the Xuhui Art Museum for the exhibition, he brought data collection equipment. The headset resembles a headset and is lightly stuck on the top of the head, while another sensing device touches the forehead, while the arm ring that collects the EMG is stuck at the upper arm and begins recording data after vibration. The two-piece device is mini and does not affect sight and operation.
At the time of parting, Song Anqi had asked Li Yega's views on the experiment. Li Yega admitted that he did not understand much about technology, so he "had no ideas". Her embroidery skills come from her mother's family, where embroidery is a hobby in the local area and a symbol of "good wife and good mother". Li Yega was excellent in craftsmanship, but an embroidered dress that took several months was sold for a few hundred yuan at the market.
What makes Song Anqi happy is that in the subsequent return visit, Li Yega revealed many positive changes. "Her work has been seen by many people at home and abroad through experimental projects and the dissemination of the Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center for Public Art (PACC). There were non-hereditary exhibitions that invited her to participate, and there were companies holding clothes and asking her to embroider. Today, Li Yega has become a non-hereditary heir of Pan embroidery in Qinghai Province, and has opened a Turkish Pan Embroidery Studio in the Mutual Aid Rainbow Tribal Tuzu Garden in Haidong City, Qinghai Province.
"Craftsmanship" disenchantment
In May last year, "The Secret of Turkish Plate Embroidery" was unveiled in the form of an innovative workshop at the National College Students Art Exhibition held in Chengdu, and Song Anqi, a former participant, was one of the leaders of the scene, teaching those who wanted to experience how to embroider a most basic buckle.
After the experiment, she almost never did needlework again, and Song Anqi originally "thought she had forgotten", but the high and low curves and ring diagrams immediately reminded her of the technique at that time, "just a step back than before the end of the experiment." ”
As a participant in the experiment, she admits that the equipment is very helpful for mastering the skill: "Many people learn the skill can only judge the good or bad through the results, but the data recording process will make people think about what they did when the data is abnormal, and make corrections or repeated practices according to the results." This way will be particularly clear to remember the characteristics of the skill. ”
Last year, visitors to the National University Student Art Exhibition wore armbands to experience intangible cultural heritage skills
Li Yega's craftsmanship comes from her mother, and her mother's skills come from women of the previous generation. Many traditional Skills in China have always been passed down from generation to generation by "family inheritance" and "master-apprentice system". Some non-hereditary inheritors once revealed that because Master said "the strength is lighter", it would take him two or three years to understand and grasp the degree of "lighter".
However, the "unspeakable" part of the skill that was originally contained in the art is now quantified by data. Through data collection and visual presentation, beginners can intuitively feel the difference between themselves and non-genetic heirs and correct and improve. Previously, a group of interactive works were exhibited at the Shanghai Design Week, aiming at the four traditional intangible cultural heritage techniques of silk, webbing, woodcut and embroidery, with the help of data acquisition equipment such as motion capture, eye tracker, brain wave sensor, and three-dimensional dynamic scanning, to record, analyze and even restore the movements, fixation points, brain activities and muscle changes of non-genetic inheritors, as if cracking the "data gene" of intangible cultural heritage. Further collection of physical data from non-hereditary inheritors into "skill archives" and handed over to machinery for production is "technically achievable." ”
Technology has made it possible to produce "digital archives" of craftsmen and artists
But many, from inheritors to consumers, find it difficult to accept and even anger at the way traditional skills are demystified. Mr. Dai, who is engaged in the promotion and curation of traditional crafts, admitted to reporters that the public's love for handicrafts such as intangible cultural heritage is precisely because it is a sacred thing to engage in a certain skill for almost a lifetime, but data analysis dissolves this sense of romanticization and sacredness. "The focus of our curation must be to tell the story of the people behind the skills, the skills are people's feelings and explorations of life, and the uncertainty is the charm of craftsmanship. If these techniques are quantified in their entirety, and even produced by mechanized means, the uniqueness of traditional techniques ceases to exist. It's as tedious as abandoning good food and extracting only the nutrients that the body needs. ”
"It's true that some people don't understand data analysis and demystifying intangible cultural heritage techniques." Li Qiansheng and his students once analyzed and visualized Cangyang Gyatso's poetry collection, marking the positive to negative emotions in the poems from yellow to white, and the regular changes in the moods in the poems, so that the data appeared like a blooming sunflower. The statistics of the words in the poems also show that "lover", "heart", "youth", etc. are all high-frequency words - the romantic genius poet in the eyes of the world, and the creation seems to have a "routine" to follow.
However, in Li Qiansheng's view, there is no conflict between the two. "Those who are willing to delve into the art can continue to study, and we are from the perspective of public popularization to better disseminate and promote traditional skills, and find their uniqueness and cultural value from the data." In his eyes, big data has lowered the threshold for the public to understand culture and art.
In the eyes of some people in the industry, a "non" word has shown that the most important thing about intangible cultural heritage is not the final product presented, but the craft of the creative process itself. "It may be better to let more people understand the craft and be willing to participate in the experience of the skill, perhaps better than the past 'consumption is the best inheritance' view."
"Intangible Cultural Heritage" to play
Li Qiansheng and his colleagues once launched a work "Visualization of Statue Measurement And Measurement" at the Ningbo Biennale, which intuitively reproduced the content of written records through the digital analysis of multiple statues. Visitors push the statue in different areas, the image proportions will change accordingly, and the data next to them will show how well they match the proportions recorded in the text.
"I have to marvel at the aesthetics and ideas of traditional culture." Citizen Xu Dong was impressed by the project, and he found that the closer to the original proportions, the more solemn the statue became, which in turn made him interested in the original obscure books: "Unlike modern metrics, which directly tell people a size, the ancients measured the use of part of the statue itself as a standard unit, this 'relative' concept goes beyond technology and contains philosophical wisdom." ”
Digital technology makes the written art of iconography visible and experienceable
"Do not explain, to feel" - in the promotion and dissemination of traditional culture represented by intangible cultural heritage skills, more and more people hope that "tradition" and "contemporary", "others" and "themselves" can be naturally linked, "the best communication and promotion is not repeated preaching, but to inspire people." From a practical point of view, 'intangible cultural heritage' is not a necessity of contemporary life; but from a cultural point of view, it contains historical and humanistic memories. In the view of some people in the industry, to promote and inherit intangible cultural heritage for contemporary young people, do not talk about so many big truths, but through "fun" products or ways, let young people like and accept.
"Play" is also a word that Li Qiansheng often hangs on his lips. Li Qiansheng called the study and creation carried out by teachers and students from the perspectives of media communication, data design, cultural and creative development, etc., as "play".
The inspiration for using sensor records to analyze intangible cultural heritage big data also stems from "playing". Around 2015, Li Qiansheng studied in the multimedia laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, a Russian classmate made a device that can record muscle waves, originally intended to record the change of posture when riding, and the follow-up can be used for industrial design and development such as automatic brake devices. ”
"A lot of things start with playing". Li Qiansheng has undertaken many commercial projects, and the project Party A always asks him "can this effect be made", such projects often have a strong purpose and utilitarianism, and it is difficult to produce effects other than "purpose". "Cross-border disciplines are often 'played'." Li Qiansheng said that "play" does not have a strong purpose, and the many new combinations of skills and numbers are not so utilitarian, "but inspiration is often born from it." ”
"Now many people think of 'intangible cultural heritage' thinking of various handicrafts, but the core of intangible cultural heritage is actually skill." In Mr. Dai's view, after the previous promotion of the quality, value and aesthetics of intangible cultural heritage commodities, "playing" may be the key to attracting contemporary young people.
Pandora's box?
At the same time as the exhibition at Xuhui Art Museum is underway, a group of data is running at high speed on the "cloud": one of the projects of this digital creation camp is to let artificial intelligence paint ancient murals - to machine learning the more than 2,000 mural materials that students have sorted out in the early stage, and artificial intelligence will generate new "ancient murals".
Li Qiansheng showed reporters the prototype of the artificial intelligence painting mural that is still in progress: the shape of the seated Buddha statue is faintly visible, and there is a picture that seems to imitate the image of "a thousand hands", and the common red, blue, green and yellow colors on the mural are also very close to the cultural relics in reality. "As long as the artificial intelligence is given enough material, it is not a problem to generate natural and realistic murals, and it can also generate dynamic murals."
Big data extracts mural color combinations
It has become a consensus that intangible cultural heritage must be innovative in order to integrate into modern life. Taking the embroidery of li yega as an example, there are only more than 20 patterns that have been handed down so far, and commercial development will soon lose its freshness. Many non-heritage craftsmen are in remote areas with limited creativity. The Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center for Public Art( PACC leverages Shanghai's resource advantages to foster pairing of designers and enterprises with non-genetic heirs.
Relatively costly "person-to-person" cooperation model, Li Qiansheng explored the "machine-to-person" model: for example, through the learning of artificial intelligence on the embroidery technique, a number of new patterns can be generated for practitioners to choose. "Just like the 'Double Eleven' online store discount not long ago, the owner does not need to look for a special artist, as long as the product elements are entered into some software, the system can automatically generate a poster."
However, this way seems to Mr. Dai to be like "opening Pandora's box": "The emphasis is on the protection of skills, and the creation of pattern forms is also an indispensable part of the skills." In his view, intangible cultural heritage is the generations of natural mountains, flowers, birds and customs of the observation, thinking and purification and integration of skills, if the computer instead of people to think and people only to complete manual work, "then who is the computer and who is the person?" ”
Citizen Chen Xiang likes to wear Hanfu, and some costumes use intangible cultural heritage skills. Among Hanfu enthusiasts, the price of machine embroidery, semi-hand-machine hand-pushed embroidery and hand-embroidery is clear, and the higher the manual ingredient, the more expensive it is. "Today's machines can already make many patterns, and even complete processes that cannot be done by hand, but the human union is constantly adjusting according to the effect, and this sense of change is something that machines cannot imitate."
Li Qiansheng regards the relationship between designers, craftsmen and artificial intelligence as "collaboration": "In the future, designers will focus on high-level, artistic works, and artificial intelligence will provide mass solutions. Craftsmen can still select and change the elements that suit them according to craftsmanship, characteristics and preferences. ”
"When museums such as the Dunhuang Research Institute have digitized and open sourced cultural heritage to share, how can intangible cultural heritage reject the digital trend?" Li Qiansheng believes that digitalization is not only preservation, but also empowerment: "As researchers, we do not think about the use of this thing from the demand side, but think about how to combine it will be more interesting and show more possibilities." ”
This year, he will begin to restore through 3D modeling, allowing the audience to "walk into" the scene of the non-genetic heir's labor, and learn the skills with the inheritors through wearable devices. "We pay attention to the inheritors, pay attention to the skills, let everyone have an intuitive feeling through the data, and make the human body feel the temperature of the hand more than holding the finished product." The emotions poured out by people are what machines can never replace. ”